Albert Ellis’ 10 Irrational Beliefs

Albert Ellis is an American psychologist who died on the 24th of July 2007. He was named as the second most influential psychotherapist in history next to Cal Rogers. In his book entitled “A Guide to Rational Living,” he enumerated the ten irrational beliefs which make people unhappy (along with the page numbers).

1.) The idea that you must have love or approval from all the significant people in your life (101).

2.) The idea that you absolutely must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving or The idea that you must be competent or talented in some important area (115).

3.) The idea that other people absolutely must not act obnoxiously and unfairly, and, that when they do, you should blame and damn them, and see them as bad, wicked, or rotten individuals (127).

4.) The idea that you have to see things as being awful, terrible, and catastrophic when you are seriously frustrated or treated unfairly (139).

5.) The idea that you must be miserable when you have pressures and difficult experiences; and that you have little ability to control, and cannot change, your disturbed feelings (155).

6.) The idea that if something is dangerous or fearsome, you must obsess about it and frantically try to escape from it (163).

7.) The idea that you can easily avoid facing many difficulties and self-responsibilities and still lead a highly fulfilling existence (177).

8.) The idea that your past remains all-important and because something once strongly influenced your life, it has to keep determining your feelings and behavior today (187).

9.) The idea that people and things absolutely must be better than they are and that it is awful and horrible if you cannot change life’s grim facts to suit you (197).

10.) The idea that you can achieve maximum happiness by inertia and inaction or by passively and uncommittedly enjoying yourself (207).